𝗪𝗛𝗢. ❥ nomin.

03 ; who needs to be kept in check?

"Check."

"Man, fuck you." Mark shoved the board, moving the pieces slightly.

Jaemin quickly fixed the pieces, gesturing for Mark to continue. "Your turn."

Mark just pushed a pawn forwards, and Jaemin's queen slid in to trap his king. "And... checkmate."

"I hope you choke on your own shit and die."

"You don't mean that." Jaemin grinned, happy that he'd won again. "Another round?"

Renjun entered Jaemin's room, back from the kitchen with a cup of tea in his hands. "I think you've destroyed his soul, Jaemin." He set the tea down on Jaemin's desk. "We've got to talk about someone else who needs to keep himself in check."

"Not this again." Jaemin sighed, leaning back onto his elbows. "I'm not going to go feral when I see him."

"I can never be sure with you."

Mark looked between the two of them, confusion written all over his face. "Who are we talking about?"

"Shit, I forgot you were here." Renjun shook his head. "It doesn't concern you." He then turned back to Jaemin. "You're not going too overboard, you hear me?"

"Aye-aye, captain."

*

Jaemin invited Jeno over the next day, just the two of them, as always. Jeno always enjoyed spending his weekends with the younger, a small habit that they had kept up since the dawn on time. They were always affectionate with each other, being as close as they were.

Jeno found it a little weird that everyone in his friend group had a little bit of gay in them. Mark didn't count as straight at this point, and even Jaemin, who was just queer, liked guys. Doyoung, in all of his complicated identity, still liked guys. Unpacking everything, it seems as though the only person that Jeno knew who didn't like men in some way was Taeil, but Taeil was aroace.

Anyways, moving on from Jeno's "does surrounding myself with homosexuality make me gay????" pipeline, he sat down on Jaemin's bed next to the him.

"Oh, there's this new music video that just came out..." Jaemin popped open his laptop, focused eyes darting across the screen. It was common practice for Jeno to watch as things like this happened, his mind always curious, but he found himself looking at Jaemin rather than the laptop. His long eyelashes, the perfectly round curve of his nose, the permanent smile that he had on around Jeno adorning his lips. Jeno always stared at the homies, truth be told, but he always thought of it as him observing the people he loved around him. After all, what if one of them were to be kidnapped and he had to describe them? He could correctly place all of Donghyuck's moles, count the brushstrokes needed to make Mark's eyebrows, and perfectly imitate Jisung's voice if need be. A little staring didn't matter!

Still, Jeno noticed that looking at Jaemin felt different from any time he'd watch Johnny change (just in case, you might need to clock in someone's dick size!). He felt warm in his chest. He felt really happy. It was a feeling that he hadn't felt in a while, of course, but he knew the feeling all too well. That was how he felt when he liked someone... but he was straight.

Obviously, this was just Jeno thinking about a girl. Right? He just happened to be spacing out to think about a girl while looking at Jaemin. Yes! That had to be it! Sexuality crisis averted!

Wait, what sexuality crisis? Jeno was straight. As far as he was concerned, he was straight.

"Jeno!"

"Huh?"

Jaemin tsked. "Pay attention! I wanna show the people I like the music I like."

As Jaemin snaked an arm around Jeno, the latter blushed. Surely, Jaemin just meant that he wanted to show the people he liked to be around the music he liked. Obviously. The blush was probably because it was hot in Jaemin's room. Obviously. And Jaemin could hold him close, they had been friends for years! As close as he wanted. Fuck, that sounded wrong.

Jeno was friends with Jaemin. That was his point.

***

jeno: